What are the types of websites?

A website, or simply site, is a set of web pages and resources linked by hyperlinks, defined and accessible by a web address. Basically it is a set of web pages accessible via the Internet, suitably linked together and having a specific purpose. Below is a detailed list of the most common types of website, listed in no particular order:

1. Showcase website

A showcase website is one of the most common websites you will find online. A showcase website allows a company to present its products and services to its visitors and potential customers. Visitors can learn what to expect from the company, various offers or packages, and how to request a quotation.

Showcase websites are usually simple in nature, and usually do not contain too much content or many pages. To allow users to easily navigate the content, a showcase website needs to be very simple. They typically have the following pages:

• Home
• Services
• Portfolio / Realizations / Accomplishments 
• Projects
• Activities 
• Pricing 
• Frequently asked questions
• Gallery
• About us
• Contact us

2. Institutional webite

A institutional website typically belongs to governmental and political organisations, economic institutions, research institutions, non-governmental organizations, nonprofit organizations, or resource management organizations.

Institutional sites allow institutions or companies to share their content, including products or services, with a large number of people. This is called institutional communication. This can be associated with online marketing because they promote the image of your business.

3. Personal / CV website

This can be a website where you present yourself, your name, your gender, your residential country, your motivations, your beliefs, etc. You can also describe what you do, your education, your work experience, and sometimes previous events or activities you participated in.

If your main goal of building a personal website is to impress potential clients and lure them into hiring you for the services you offer, you need to put a very strong emphasis on your previous accomplishments; especially the most impressive ones, and the most recent ones.

Common questions about personal websites

4. Portfolio website

A portfolio website, for the most part, serves the same purpose as a personal website. The main difference is that, for a portfolio website, in addition to presenting the owner, a strong emphasis is placed on presenting the owner’s previous work and achievements. This is usually followed up with a long list of high-profile clients that the owner has served or collaborated with before. Furthermore, an even stronger highlight is usually placed on the “Hire me now” call-to-action, where the site’s owner entices visitors to hire him/her for a project. 

Thus, personal / CV websites are mostly social or personal, whereas, portfolio websites are mainly commercial.

5. Listing / directory website

Listing websites, also known as directory websites are meant to present a list of products or services, ordered by specific categories, to browse, choose their preferred, and finally order or buy the product or service. Since the main feature is browsing, the filtering system needs to be very useful to the visitors, otherwise, they will fail to find what they are looking for. Just like an e-commerce website, a listing website can be managed in 2 ways following who is allowed to add new listings:

1. Only the owner of the website can post listings.
2. The owner allows others to create accounts and post their own listings for free or at a cost.

Deciding which approach is better depends on the goal of the owner, the types of listings, the size of the website, the owner’s capacity of the owner to moderate the listings, or the capacity to resolve conflicts between the listers and the visitors.

6. News / Journal website

News of / Journal Website usually serve one purpose: to allow an News Organisation to displatch and distribute it’s content and program with its views. But as the website grows, more and more features can be added to serve varous purpose, mostly to help the organisation to monetise it’s content. In addition to the blogging features, these other features could include:

• Acount creation by users: this could allow the organisation to build communities and provide an even more engaging experience. Users with accounts could leave comments, contributions, inquiries, and additions to various articles.
• Newsletters: where users subscribe to various categories of Newsletters that interest them the most. Newsletters could be paid, but they are usually FREE, and allow the organisation to collect email address that it could then use to promote more services to its readers/viewers.
• Subscriptions to access paid content: to further enlarge monetisation opportunities, the News organisation can offer Premium content under various packages of subscriptions.

7. E-commerce website

E-commerce websites facilitate money transactions electronically so you can sell your products and services online. Through these sites entrepreneurs can allow the purchase of their goods or services, receive payments and track deliveries.

Despite exploding in popularity and being more and more accepted by the general public as part of daily life, the e-commerce space is one of the hardest to get into. This is because, to earn buyers’ and sellers’ trust, the owner of the website needs to prove to them that they can truly deliver on their promise. Yet, this process takes a lot of money and time; resources that most newcomers usually can’t afford. On this, you add stiff competition, and it becomes even more complex.

But, once an e-commerce website is trusted and liked by users, it can generate a lot of money for the creator through various means, including commissions on sales, adverts on the website, making sellers pay to be featured, etc. Other most important features that lead to the success of an e-commerce platform are:

• The accessibility and ease of use of the website on both big and small screens.
• The speed at which the pages load.
• The costs of products.
• The payment methods that are accepted on the platform.
• The speed at which buyers’ inquiries get answered.
• The speed at which items are delivered, and the quality at which they are delivered.
• Etc.

8. Mini website

Also known as one-pagers, mini-sites allow you to create a buzz about a new product or present an event in an ephemeral way. Mini-websites are usually made of one single page which presents the event, person, product, or announcement in a very concise way, and most importantly, presents a call-to-action that asks visitors to register, join the wait-list, make an order, register to the newsletter, give a comment or suggestion, or any other CTA that align with the goal of the website.

Mini-websites are usually temporary and get taken down or repurposed after they are no longer needed.

9. Blog website

The purpose of a Blogging website is always to publish articles in a curated and regular manner. The website could also provide more services like user-generated content, subscriptions, forums, newsletters, live streams, selling products, etc. But the main feature remains publishing blog articles. The articles could be:

• Educative: which presents information in a way to reveal new knowledge to the readers about a specific subject matter.
• Informative / news: here the writer aims to present news and fact that happened either a long time ago, or recently.
• Tips and Secrets: when the writer provides new best ways to do things, shortcuts and more efficient ways to accomplish certain tasks, and new features of a certain application, etc.
• Advice: these types of blog posts present information to inform readers about best practices or things to avoid in a certain field or activity. This advice could be lifestyle-based, social, or financial.
• Historical blog posts: these are meant to present historical facts either exactly the way they occurred or with a commentary to give a personal opinion.
• Comparative posts: where the writer compares one or more things against each other. These could be physical or digital products, services, applications, companies, countries, etc.
• Review posts: making a purchase decision is one of the hardest things to do, especially when the product or service is expensive. Even though companies provide their own reviews and opinions, review blog posts by independent bloggers are always more trustworthy and based on real-life experiences with the product.
• Fictional blogs: writers could also publish fictional stories in blog posts.

10. Social media website

Probably the most well-known type of website, social media websites allow users to create accounts, post content, and interact with other users’ content too. Lately, social media websites have added more and more features that turned them into marketplaces, calendars, communications tools, planning tools, video-sharing platforms, streaming platforms, etc. The definition of a social medium keeps changing, but they remain websites or mobile applications where people share, communicate, collaborated, and socialize.

11. Forum / Community website

A forum website allows users to have public discussions (accessible by everyone at any time). Community websites can offer any service, as long as their main feature is community discussions, comments, and Q&As. These websites allow users to engage in more active and direct interactions about specific topics, under a specific field. There are forum websites that are a bit more general like Reddit.com for example, but most often, community websites cover specific domains.

12. Sctreaming website

Either streaming music, videos, podcasts, events, or special effects, these sites allow visitors to listen to or watch audio-visual content online, without any need to download the content. Good examples of popular streaming websites include:

• Fleed Music: https://fleedmusic.com
• YouTube.com
• Spotify.com
• Soundcloud.com
• Google Podcasts
• Etc

Conclusion

The type of website you choose to build for your organization/company depends entirely on the types of products or services you offer. But you do not need to struggle with this question because our type is ready to help you clarify any questions you may have.